words from a queer feminist

So, I published this article to the school newspaper and am anxiously awaiting the hate mail. :)

As a neutrally-gendered, queer and feminist female student, my experience here in Sewanee has been an interesting one. We all know Sewanee to be an extremely unique place full of a homogenous group of people. I spent the majority of my time here trying to not fit into those categories of same-ness; the white, male, and heterosexually privileged. I pushed the boundaries of gender when I shaved my head freshman year. I pursued knowledge of feminist and queer theory when I organized and implemented two conferences last semester on various political and social topics. I was alienated and alienated myself when I dated an amazing woman outside of Sewanee, for two and a half years. It is now, on the eve of my last semester here in Sewanee, that I have begun to ponder who it is that I am in relation to this place. In light of my differences, would I have had the opportunities and experiences that I have had if I weren’t a Sewanee student and therefore, given access to Sewanee homogeneity and its privileges?

In Sewanee, everyone is constantly engaged in the pursuit of knowledge. I cannot tell you how many times I have discussed the effects of conservative religious influence on human rights in America at a party. But, here in Sewanee, we know that knowledge comes in all shapes and sizes. Sometimes truth is in plain sight and other times it remains well hidden. For a while, I was bitter because all I saw were textbook definitions of human inequality. I became angry with Sewanee. I desired exposure to real culture and to real members of what I perceived to be my type of people. I perceived these people and communities to reside outside of the Sewanee bubble. What I did not realize was that I was wasting my years of academic privilege by becoming angry when I interacted with people who were homophobic or anti-feminist. What I have realized more recently is that I have been living in a community that I wish every social activist could experience. If every pro-choice activist had to sit and argue points with a privileged, religiously conservative, political science major from the Sewanee student population, they’d be better off for it. It is through difference and interaction with those differences that one grows. I know I probably did not evoke change in many people here in Sewanee, but at least I have received the opportunity to test my beliefs and attempted to pursue truth within myself. I suppose that is the goal of a student community; to test out and strengthen our own beliefs as well as those around us.

To my friends, both professors and students, who have listened to me rant and rave, cry and scream about discrimination and violation of human rights: thank you for your compassion. To those individuals who have called me a dyke or a faggot or a Femi-Nazi: thank you for your difference. To all those out there who are social activists: keep on fighting the good fight.